Restaurant Industry News - Financial

Tootie Pie Company, Inc. (OTCQB: TOOT) announced that its January 2012 same-store sales for its five Tootie Pie Gourmet Cafes were up 23% over January 2011. The Company also extended its consecutive monthly sales increases to 27 with sales increases in January.

Panera Bread Company (NASDAQ: PNRA) reported adjusted net income of $42 million, or $1.42 per diluted share, for the thirteen weeks ended December 27, 2011, before a one-time pre-tax charge of $5 million.

In continuing with its trend of strong sales performance, Chick-fil-A®, Inc. announces that it exceeded $4 billion in annual sales in 2011.

Company-wide comparable restaurant sales increased 7.0%, due primarily to traffic and led by the Benihana Teppanyaki concept, which reported 8.2% comparable restaurant sales growth and a 6.4% increase in dine-in guest counts;

Net earnings increased 34.0% to $13.6 million from $10.2 million, and earnings per diluted share increased 32.7% to $0.73 from $0.55

Company units posted a 12.1 percent year-over-year increase, with franchisees reporting a 9.9 percent jump. It was Fazoli’s best January sales growth in its history.

Worldwide system sales grew 7%, prior to foreign currency translation, including 29% in China and 8% at YRI. System sales in the U.S. were even.

Net income was $1,211,000 or $0.24 per diluted share as compared to net (loss) of $(153,000) or $(0.03) per diluted share for the thirteen weeks ended December 26, 2010;

Net sales of $1,158.2 million, up 102% over net sales of $574.1 million in the year-ago quarter

Revenue for the quarter was $596.7 million, up 23.7% from the prior year period. The growth in revenue was the result of new restaurants not in the comparable base and an 11.1% increase in comparable restaurant sales. Comparable restaurant sales growth was primarily driven by increased traffic in the quarter as well as the impact of menu price increases implemented between March and August.